Review: The Golden Ocean by Patrick O'Brian

The Golden Ocean follows the adventures of young Peter Palafox, son of a poor pastor in rural Ireland, as he becomes a midshipman in the British Royal Navy aboard Commodore Anson's HMS Centurion. The Centurion prepares to sail on Anson's historic circumnavigation of the globe as Peter struggles to learn his new trade and adjust to life in the midshipman's berth.

It was interesting to read this story and find pieces of what became Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin spread through the book's characters. Mr. Walter's frustration that the squadron wouldn't slow down long enough for him to collect sea floor specimens. Ransome's fascination with puns. Anson continually drilling his crews in gunnery and leading by example. These should all be familiar themes to Master and Commander fans.

One thing that didn't hit me until about halfway through was the reversal of the characters' perspectives between The Golden Ocean and the Aubrey/Maturin series. The main character of Master and Commander is an officer assuming his first command of a fighting ship. So the reader's main vantage point is from that of the captain for the entire series. But in The Golden Ocean we see the life of a young man first heading to sea as a midshipman and trying to learn his new trade. Everything is new to him and he's at the bottom of the pecking order.

Even though I keep relating it to O'Brian's other works, The Golden Ocean stands on its own. It's an engaging story that pulls you into the reality of life at sea in the 18th century.

Many elements of O'Brian's writing style in the Aubrey/Maturin series are here also. His wry humor shines through brilliantly, maybe even more than in his later works. There's also the use of letters home and journal entries to describe events and a character's thoughts to the reader.

Two of the elements that significantly contributed to the success of the Aubrey/Maturin series are also present in this book. Those are his descriptive story telling and authenticity to the time period. The characters speak as they would have in the time period.

While O'Brian uses plenty of mid-18th century naval jargon and the occasional Latin phrases, this book isn't as challenging a read as most of the Master and Commander series books. (Maybe I'm used to it now after reading all 21 of those books.)

Even though it was written 20 years earlier, O'Brian's descriptive and authentic writing style that I enjoyed so much in the Aubrey-Maturin series are clearly present in The Golden Ocean. Reading it was like catching up with an old friend.